feedback on v2beta1

[Reinhard Scherer]

Dear Qubes-Team,

congratulations to v2beta1 finalization !


1., A Change request:

- check for vt-x/vt-d and amd-v/iommu before installation and display warning if cpu does not support hvm domains.

or

- add a link to cpuid ( http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/sb/cs-014921.htm )
and intel virtualization list ( http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology?wapkw=vt-x )
and "AMD Processors with Rapid Virtualization Indexing Required to Run Hyper-V in Windows® 8" (right one ???)
http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/GPU120AMDRVICPUsHyperVWin8.aspx

to installation guide

to prevent accidental installation on unsupported hardware

otherwise hvm start fails (hvm create works)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

2., Issues

- running out of diskspace (happened at template update) rendered Qubes1.3 unbootable (quota??).
- deletion of existing partition not possible in installer ? can this be changed easily ?
- Qubes2b1: the link to work:LibreOffice is missing/broken

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

3., pls add to documentation:

- for grub2 os's the simplest way to coexist with qubes is to move grub2 from mbr to the boot partition first, so that qube's grub-chainloader will work well:

grub-install --force /dev/sda1

[Marek Marczykowski]

On 16.12.2012 04:24, Reinhard Scherer wrote:
>
> Dear Qubes-Team,
>
> congratulations to v2beta1 finalization !
>
>
> 1., A Change request:
>
> - check for vt-x/vt-d and amd-v/iommu before installation and display warning if cpu does not support hvm domains.
>
> or
>
> - add a link to cpuid ( http://www.intel.com/support/processors/tools/piu/sb/cs-014921.htm )
> and intel virtualization list ( http://ark.intel.com/Products/VirtualizationTechnology?wapkw=vt-x )
> and "AMD Processors with Rapid Virtualization Indexing Required to Run Hyper-V in Windows® 8" (right one ???)
> http://support.amd.com/us/kbarticles/Pages/GPU120AMDRVICPUsHyperVWin8.aspx
>
> to installation guide
>
> to prevent accidental installation on unsupported hardware
>
> otherwise hvm start fails (hvm create works)

Good idea.
http://wiki.qubes-os.org/trac/ticket/692

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 2., Issues
>
> - running out of diskspace (happened at template update) rendered Qubes1.3 unbootable (quota??).

Perhaps you've got corrupted template filesystem by this incident... You can
reinstall template from qubes-template-fedora-17-*rpm from DVD. If your system
hang on starting netvm/firewallvm, you can skip this step by pressing "i"
early at startup (press "ESC" to see detailed startup) - you can select which
services should start, skip qubes_netvm.

Anyway indeed there is nothing to warn the user about disk full in dom0 (it is
monitored only in VMs).
http://wiki.qubes-os.org/trac/ticket/693

> - deletion of existing partition not possible in installer ? can this be changed easily ?

This is possible - you can check "Review and modify partitioning layout" -
then you will be able to manually modify automatically generated layout,
including removing existing partitions.

> - Qubes2b1: the link to work:LibreOffice is missing/broken

Thanks.
http://wiki.qubes-os.org/trac/ticket/694
Workaround: run template update, then remove and add again OpenOffice to the menu.

> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 3., pls add to documentation:
>
> - for grub2 os's the simplest way to coexist with qubes is to move grub2 from mbr to the boot partition first, so that qube's grub-chainloader will work well:
>
> grub-install --force /dev/sda1

You can easily do the opposite way: place Qubes grub on partition, then add in
to your main grub2 (from "the other" system). If you check "Review and modify
partitioning layout" during installation, you will be able to select
bootloader location.
Anyway grub configuration isn't Qubes-specific at all and there are plenty
documentation on in already available on the web.

--
Best Regards / Pozdrawiam,
Marek Marczykowski
Invisible Things Lab